Wanda McCaddon
IT was 2 p.m. on the afternoon of May 7, 1915. The Lusitania had been struck by two torpedoes in succession and was sinking rapidly, while the boats were being launched with all possible speed. The women and children were being lined up awaiting their turn. Some still clung desperately to husbands and fathers; others clutched their children closely to their breasts. One girl stood alone, slightly apart from the rest.
2) Emma
An Everyman’s Library edition of Jane Austen’s revolutionary and inspiring novel, which is once again a major motion picture.
Twenty-one-year-old Emma Woodhouse is comfortably dominating the social order in the village of Highbury, convinced that she has both the understanding and the right to manage other people’s lives—for their own good, of course. Her well-meant interfering centers on the aloof Jane Fairfax,
The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. When the lovers choose to die by their own hands, their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome; only two—the ten-year-old twins...
When Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his second wife and her three daughters at the mercy of his son and heir, John. John's wife convinces him to turn his step-mother and half-sisters out, and they move to a country cottage, rented to them by a distant relative. In their newly reduced circumstances Elinor and Marianne, the two eldest daughters, wrestle with ideas of romance and reality and their apparent opposition to each other. Elinor struggles
...Roberta Gellis, the acclaimed author of The Roselynde Chronicles, is in top medieval form with this second tale of life—and death—in twelfth-century London.
Magdalene la Bâtarde is the madam of the Old Priory Guesthouse in Southwark. Together with the handsome Sir Bellamy of Itchen, she solved the murder of Baldassare the Messenger, but this time the murder victim is none of Magdalene's business.
She is not in the least
...Magdalene la Bâtarde obeys William of Ypres, her great patron, as a vassal obeys his overlord—even though William would laugh if he knew how she felt. However, when King Stephen summons his barons to a great council in Oxford, William can smell the stink of treason—and he has enemies who might spread that stink over him. He needs a safe place to talk to friends and cajole enemies, so he summons Magdalene.
When Magdalene is called,
...From the two-time Man Booker short–listed author of The Secret Scripture comes a magnificent new novel that is the story of the twentieth century in America.
Told in the first person, as a narrative of Lilly Bere's life over seventeen days, On Canaan's Side opens as Lilly mourns the loss of her grandson, Bill. Lilly revisits her past, going back to the moment she was forced to flee Ireland at the end of the First World War, and continues
...Roseanne McNulty, once one of the most beautiful and beguiling girls in County Sligo, Ireland, is now an elderly patient at a mental hospital. As her hundredth year draws near, she decides to record the events of her life but hides the manuscript.
Meanwhile, the hospital is preparing to close and is evaluating which patients can return to society. Dr. Grene, Roseanne's caretaker, takes a special interest in her case. In his research, he discovers
...12) A Mortal Bane
Roberta Gellis, acclaimed author of The Roselynde Chronicles, brings medieval London to life—and death—with this tale of splendor and squalor.
Magdalene la Batarde is the madam of the Old Priory Guesthouse in Southwark. She and her women are expected to engage in a number of sinful activities, but bloody murder isn't one of them—until Baldassare, the messenger, dies. Magdalene and her women refuse to allow his death to go
...13) The Seamstress
They were teachers, students, chemists, writers, and housewives—a singer at the Paris Opera, a midwife, a dental surgeon. They distributed anti-Nazi leaflets, printed subversive newspapers, hid resisters, spirited Jews to safety, transported weapons, and conveyed clandestine messages. The youngest was a schoolgirl of fifteen who scrawled "V" for victory on the walls of her lycée; the eldest, a farmer's wife in her sixties who harbored escaped
...Michelangelo was recognized during his lifetime as the greatest living artist, creator of a number of masterpieces in sculpture, fresco painting, and architecture. He impressed his contemporaries as a forceful personality, a divine genius endowed with intense emotional power. Often portrayed as a solitary and austere figure, he in fact enjoyed a remarkable range of friendships, and those he loved and hated, served or resisted are presented here,
...Unlike quite a number of people, Agatha has not given up on Christmas. To have the perfect Christmas had been a childhood dream while surviving a rough upbringing in a Birmingham slum. Holly berries glistened, snow fell gently outside, and inside, all was Dickensian jollity. And in her dreams, James Lacey kissed her under the mistletoe, and like a middle-aged sleeping beauty, she would awake to passion once more.
Agatha Raisin is bored. Her
...A recipe for happiness: four women, one medieval Italian castle, plenty of sunshine, wisteria, and solitude as needed
Four very diverse women, all seeking revitalization from the dreary February rains of 1920s London, rent the small medieval castle of San Salvatore, nestled high above the bay of Portofino, Italy. Arriving at San Salvatore, they find it awash with the scent of flowers, its olive groves terracing down to the sun-warmed sea.
Each
...that she wants nothing more than to take quality time for rest and relaxation. But as soon as she begins closing the agency on weekends, she remembers that when she has plenty of quality time, she doesn’t know what to do with it. So it doesn’t take much for the vicar of a nearby village to persuade her to help publicize the church fête——especially...